Loved for Myself: A Modern Day Re-Telling of The Phantom of the Opera
by givemethestrengthtotry
Summary: Christine Dennan is young and talented. She has found happiness and stability in her life, but when she begins to study voice with a new instructor, things begin to change... Some little headcannons about a modern day Phantom story turned into this, any feedback would be awesome.
1. Chapter 1

**Loved for Myself: A Modern Day Re-Telling of The Phantom of the Opera**

Chapter 1

The beeping of an alarm clock was never heard in the small apartment belonging to Christine and Meg. The two thought that the traditional sound of an alarm was too ugly, and as Meg always put it, "If we have to abandon the bliss of a warm bed, we might as well be greeted by something beautiful in the mornings!" They decided that instead, a piece of music set to play instead would be best, and the two decided "Ritorna Vincitor" from _Aida _would make a good choice. After a few weeks, Christine swore she'd never be able to feel pleasant during any performance of the aria again. This morning, Maria Callas' masterful voice echoed through the apartment earlier than normal. Christine woke from an light sleep, and turned off the alarm. She never slept well before her lessons. Christine looked over at Meg, who had stirred at the sound of the alarm. Christine longed to tell her of some of the things that had happened to her in the past few months, but knew she couldn't. If she told anyone, her lessons would not be able to continue and Christine was not ready to give up the two hours a week that she spent with her new vocal instructor.

Christine got up and quietly dressed for the day. She stepped into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She sighed at her unruly auburn curls which framed her pale face, but admired her pink lips and naturally dewy complexion. Christine was never one to brag on her own attributes, but she felt beautiful today. Something about the aura of the days she got to have a lesson filled her with a breezy and pleasant attitude. She pulled back her hair into a pony tail, deciding that fighting with the curls was not worth it, and was brushing her teeth when Meg's tiny frame appeared in the doorway.

"Chrissy, why are up so early?" Meg asked, "We don't have to be at the theater until ten - and I don't know about you, but that last glass of wine put me over the threshold into hangover territory."

"Well," Christine replied, after rinsing her mouth and returning her toothbrush to the holder, "I did not drink any wine, if you'll recall. We do have to sing for a living, Megan, and you know what Ray would do if he found out you downed a bottle of Chardonnay during a late night _Gossip Girl _binge." Christine was talking of their stern-faced music director, Raymond Heir, who scolded any chorus member he knew had done anything bad for the voice. Meg looked at Christine, sleep still in her eyes. "Live a little, Chrissy baby." Meg said, "Besides, he won't find out unless a certain goody-two shoes was to tell him." Meg gave Christine a playful kick in the rear as she pushed past her towards the front door.

"Wait," Meg called after her, "You didn't answer my question. Where do you have to go so early?"

"I have a lesson, that's all." Christine replied, slipping on her shoes.

"Ah the famous mystery man! Where exactly-" Meg started, but Christine cut her off.

"I'm running late, no time to talk Meggie. There's aspirin in the bathroom cabinet for your head, and may I suggest a cup of tea, nothing caffeinated. Love you, muah!" Christine blew Meg a kiss and slipped out the front door, quickly grabbing her purse and almost slamming the door behind her. She could hear Meg give a sigh and shuffle away on the other side of the door. Christine hated keeping things from Meg, and rarely let her get a question out about her lessons so that she wouldn't have to do much actual lying. All Meg knew was Christine was taking lesson from a man somewhere in the city, and that since the start of these lessons, Christine's voice had taken flight like never before. Christine knew that Meg had caught on to the fact that Christine was trying to keep the details of these lessons private; they were best friends and often knew what the other one was thinking with just a simple look. Meg didn't bother her about it though - either she didn't care enough about it to pester Christine for information, or just decided to let Christine have a secret. Christine had a strong feeling it was the former, Meg was a wonderful friend and person but was a bit apathetic. Christine took an elevator down to the lobby of their apartment building, walked out to the street busy with New York traffic, and hailed a cab.

"Kay Theater." she told the cabby, and she sat back and closed her eyes. She ached to start her lesson.

...

Christine Dennan never knew her mother, she had abandoned Christine and her father mere days after Christine was born. Her father was a talented composer and violinist, though he had no real training and no luck to take him into the stardom he was capable of. In Christine's early years she and her father played at coffeehouses and on street corners. he dazzled crowds with his violin, and she sang in her sweet, light, bell-like voice. Christine was a happy child, and never questioned why she and her father never had a real home, for they often relied on friends and kindly people to house them. She loved her father, and the music they made together. When she was eight, though, her father died and she was put into the foster care system. Christine was a "problem child" for her many sets of foster parents. Music left her life and she was near mute.

At the age of thirteen, she happened to meet Mrs. Valerius, a wealthy widow who found the adolescent Christine hiding in the park after she ran away from a foster home. Christine took immediately to the kindly older woman, who got a cab and took the crying and frail looking girl to a diner for the first good dinner Christine had had in days. Once Christine calmed down, Mrs. Valerius fell in love with the intelligent and funny girl who Christine let out for the first time since the death of her father. Though Christine was emotional and unruly, Mrs. Valerius knew that Christine had a good heart. After a bit of struggle with CPA, Mrs. Valerius and was able to adopt Christine on her fourteenth birthday. As a birthday gift, Christine's new Mama Valerius took her to the opera. One act into _Cosi fan Tutti_, Christine knew that she wanted to be on stage one day.

Mama Valerius decided to enroll Christine in voice lessons (which went splendidly, though the instructor could never get Christine's voice to shine like he knew it could). She also took dance lessons, where she excelled quite rapidly and ended up meeting her best friend, Megan Greene. Christine lived happily now, comfortable with Mama Valerius and blooming into a beautiful and talented young women. At the age of eighteen, Christine left Mama Valerius' home (with many hugs and a good amount of tears from both parties) and moved into a small apartment with Megan. Christine won a scholarship to Brooklyn College to study vocal performance, and Meg went to the Julliard School to study dance. They now both worked in the same opera company, a relatively young venture called Skyline Opera Company. They had been in the chorus together for about six months but with the way her new lessons were going, Christine didn't let the thought that greater things that chorus parts might be in store leave her mind.

...

Christine hurried into the theater, and made a beeline for the tiny dressing room she shared with Meg and two other chorus members. It was empty now. She sat anxiously, searched on the edge of he seat. She was always afraid he wouldn't come. Suddenly, a rich male voice came from nowhere.

"Christine..." said the voice. It was smooth and dark and beautiful, like black silk.

Christine weakly answered, "Yes, my...angel."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Skyline Opera company was started by Andrew Dane and Robert Phillips in the mid 90s. The two men were a couple, and rose to renown in New York as producers and benefactors of the arts. After a Broadway flop lost the two a considerable amount of money, they decided to leave big-budget musical theatre and focus on something else, something they both loved: opera. In order to embark on this venture, they bought the run down and abandoned Kay Theater, once home to the popular Big Apple Lyric Opera. The Big Apple company played their final show in 1986, and abandoned the theater due to financial trouble. Andrew and Robert had been in the theater often, and knew that it would be perfect for what they wanted to do. They refurbished the theater and rechristened the stage with their new opera company.

The Skyline Opera Company grew in popularity, and became a home for the most creative and cutting edge productions of the old classics, and a home for new opera in New York. The theater was spectacular, with beautiful architecture and design that hearkened back to the opera houses of the golden days of the art. The Kay Theater now housed not only the most talented and fruitful opera company in the city, but was a hot spot for all types to see and be seen. Robert and Andrew's parties were all the rage in the city, and influential people clamored to be put on the guest list almost as much as talented performers clamored to be a part of the company. While Christine and Megan would have no doubt been able to get into the company based only on their laurels, a little bit of nepotism didn't hurt when choosing who to employ. Meg's mother, successful ballet dancer Annette Greene, was an old friend of Andrew and Robert's and upon her retiring from professional dancing, she became the head choreographer of the Skyline Opera Company. Her position made the decision to give Meg and Christine places with the company even easier for Robert and Andrew.

This week was a particularly special for the members of the Skyline Opera Company, because it was the last week Andrew and Robert would spend as the head managers of the company. They were retiring and moving to Chicago, and the entirety of the company was sad to see them go. The couple was beloved by the performers, the house staff, the tech crew, and all the directors and composers that got to work with Skyline. The theater and company had been sold recently to a brother sister team: Francis and Richard Jackson. Fran and Rick, as they were more commonly known, were successful theatre people, who came from a family known for supporting the arts in New York. Fran was a playwright above all, and decided to try her hand at managing a theater company and was excited to be around the beauty of opera. Rick, a producer, was a lot more left-brained than Fran, and had no real interest in opera. His mind was set more on money, and the only motivation he had in purchasing Skyline was the profits it earned as a theatrical and social hot spot.

Two floors up from Christine's dressing room, where she was currently being taught by her new tutor, the new managers where meeting with the old managers, and learning the ways of the theater before Andrew and Robert's farewell in three days, which was being marked by the performance of the pairs favorite opera, _Il Nozze di Figaro_.

"Though I am sad to go," said Andrew in the bright and sunny office the managers shared, "I simply can't wait to see _Figaro!_"

"It'll be wonderful!" exclaimed Robert "Carla is going to make a grand Rosina!" Robert was speaking of the company's leading soprano, Carla Anderson. Carla had been with the opera for years, and had a sense of entitlement when it came to roles. Not that she wouldn't have gotten the roles she wanted, she was talented, but her success had given her a diva attitude.

"Ah, yes, Carla!" Rick spoke finally after having glazed over a few minutes into the long conversation his sister was having with the two men about the opera's season. After being dragged to the see a Skyline production by his sister a few months ago when the purchase of the opera company was still in negotiations, he had been back often for one thing only: to see Carla glow upon the stage. Well, at least to Rick she glowed. He often referred to her to as an "African goddess of the stage" to his sister. She always laughed at her brothers infatuation. He was a hulking and muscular man, and rather menacing looking if you didn't know him. "Here we go," Fran snickered to the old managers.

"She is going to be wonderful, sparkling and magnificent!" Rick beamed as he spoke of the soprano. The managers had to hold back laughter. It really was quite funny to see the large black man fawning over this woman like a thirteen year old in puppy love.

"Yes, no doubt," replied Robert, still stifling back a chuckle, "it's wonderful to see you so involved in the opera. You will be eating, sleeping, and breathing it from now on!"

"I am so excited to get started," said Fran, "I so adore the things you two have done in this theater. We have big shoes to fill! I must ask, do you have any advice for my brother and I as we embark?"

The two men talked to the siblings about several things, from how to deal with cast conflict, to hiring directors, to choosing the shows for a season. After about twenty minutes of talking, the men grew silent.

"There is one more thing," Andrew said "As with most theaters, you will hear...rumors of things happening here that cant be explained. There are always stories of lights coming on when no one is there, footsteps heard outside a dressing room late at night, those sorts of things." Andrew looked very uneasy as he spoke, and didn't make eye contact with Rick or Fran. "This theater is no exception. If you were to ask a chorus member about it, they would say we had one of the worst theater ghosts in all of New York. This is, of course, all imagination. Simply the minds of the cast and crew running awry. If you hear someone going on about the opera's resident phantom just...let it go. Alright?"

"Okay," Fran said, hesitantly. She wondered why the man spoke so seriously of something as silly as ghost stories. "Thank you for all the advice. My brother and I have another meeting to get to, so we'd better be off." She tapped Rick on the shoulder, he had glazed over again, no doubt day dreaming of his "African goddess." The two grabbed their jackets, and left the office. Robert sank into a chair.

"I feel bad not telling those two the truth about our phantom problem!" he said, "It feels so wrong to keep them in the dark. Dealing with him won't be easy."

"Oh, darling, your heart is too good," sighed Andrew, "If we told them about all the trouble the phantom causes, they'd probably refuse to buy this theater from us. You know how ready we are to be rid of this whole business!" He kissed his partner on the cheek. "My honest white knight," Andrew said with a wink, "come on, let's take a walk around the theater. I know you're sad to say goodbye."


End file.
